Something is afoot in the SCV. In a place once known as the paragon of American bedroom communities, the exurb against which other exurbs are judged, a place that’s experienced by many only when they are asleep and by others only when they are on the freeway out of town, there is a tiny seed of culture and uniqueness that has taken root against all odds, and it’s transforming us already.
What is it? What is this thing that threatens (to some) and promises (to others) to change life in the SCV?
Food.
Consider what we’ve been witness to in the last few weeks and the last several years. Farmers Markets are spreading all around town. Chief among them is the popular Sunday COC Farmers Market, where regional growers are met week after week by thousands of loyal SCV shoppers who peg their culinary adventures to the growers’ calendars and get to know farmers and growers by name. But it’s not just there: the Newhall Farmer’s Market, once panned as a false farmer’s market, is now enjoying legitimacy and increased traffic in our revitalized Old Town Newhall.
And then last weekend: a food truck bonanza. I never thought 8,000 Santa Claritans would gather in the same place for anything other than a classic Hart vs Valencia football game, but we did on Saturday night in Bridgeport, not for football but for food. A full 3.2% of the SCV’s population came out to Bridgeport just to try some food from LA food truck operators, and while the event was somewhat poorly planned and the logistics weren’t well thought out, it turned out to be a great social occasion for many. Friends met friends. Hell, even SCVTalk’s old ideological nemesis Petz broke gourmet bread with regular SCVTalk readers and contributors. And families enjoyed time together and famous chefs came out to cater to us in a shared, outdoor, social environment.
And now, the next wave: Community gardening. Fast forward through Councilwoman Laurene Weste’s State of the City video (and her lovely, simply fabulous costumes) to about 3:35 in the video where she talks about the future half-acre Central Park community garden:
Now to many SCVers, particularly the Tea Party set, a “community garden” might smack of collectivist agriculture. And well, it is (we’re even going to give excess produce to the poor!). I don’t deny the irony here: in a place owned by a single capitalist farming-turned-development company (Newhall Land & Farming, we forget the last part it seems) which was built on the land-holdings of an old-school California land baron, we’re now coming together to open up space to the public so that gardening hobbyists and amateur farmers can attempt to grow their own beets, avocados, tomatoes and tangerines. Why?
Just because.
Wait a minute. Collectivism. Here? Did I fall asleep and wake up in Venice? No, it’s true. This is happening in SCV. And Laurene Weste says it is but the first of several in Santa Clarita.
In this brave new SCV, we don’t just go to the old Ralphs and Vons supermarket to buy shrink-wrapped, pre-packaged foods trucked in from America’s prairie lands. Hell, we don’t even go to Whole Foods. We go out and seek after our food, ideally from someone who has grown it themselves in Ventura County or points north. In this new SCV, we’re adventurous enough to stand & socialize with our neighbors for an hour as we wait for Ludo’s latest creation or pine for the cupcake truck’s tasty deserts. And in the not-too-distant SCV, people will gather to plant, cultivate and harvest their own food on land whose title reads, “We the people.”
The point is we’re sharing and socializing together over food, often times in public, outdoor places. We are connecting with each other and creating communities online and off, and we’re investing time, money and energy in our town. This is a big change from the SCV I grew up in, where acquiring food amounted to a solitary trip in the car to the grocery store and later, boxed mashed potatoes and canned green beens enjoyed in front of the television.
In a place designed to isolate people from each other, procuring and eating food is becoming social and even cool and we are now seeing the SCV grow up and become more mature as it develops its own unique shared culture, a culture beyond youth sports and the PTA, a culture that everyone can enjoy. And I think it’s pretty neat and tasty.
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Jeff, once again your abject liberalism has caused you to be blinded. The Tea Party movement is about responsible government that lives within it’s means and inspires productivity rather than lavishing unlimited welfare upon its people. Community activities, even those partially funded with taxpayer dollars, are not the domain of the Tea Party. I think a community garden is a splendid way to bring the community together and inspire folks to grow their own. Who knows, perhaps after Prop 19 passes, there will be a whole new crop to plant :O)
As to the Food Truck Revolution, I am happy to see that one can now get something other than heartburn from a food truck! As long as these businesses are maintaining the same health code provisions and taxation that brick and mortar businesses must live under, I say onward mobile food makers!
Lol… Teaparty is a conservative temper tantrum because they lost an election.
Los Angeles just approved a letter system for the truck the same as brick and mortar buildings.
Http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010180008
Lol the tea party is apparently about responsible government with no accountability. I wonder what people would be saying if Obama arrested a blogger?
A community garden?! Sweet! Maybe the city can get a chicken coop next!
Weste the queen of the west. She builds trails while our roads continue to deteriorate. Ms. Weste, what is your plan for stopping the 10 million south of us from using the open space we pay to have?
Haha yes small local government 2oo miles from the border with no federal authority what will you do???? Also I keep getting emails from Nigerian Princes what will you do about that????
damage, I think he’s referring to the 10 million people in Los Angeles. Just so you know, this is north of the border.
As for the Nigerian email, definitely respond with your name and bank account info. Your wit has little value.
Nice trendspotting. I think we’ve turned a corner. Saturday was the first sign of it.
LAist coming up this way a couple weeks back to remark on a few local eateries was also notable, though a footnote compared to Saturday.
I’m sure everyone who heard about the food truck event and (gasp!) the community garden naturally thought about the radical right-wing TeaParty crazies who would stop at nothing to eliminate such activities. Really, it makes perfect sense that you tied them in here.
Touche. On reflection I should have dropped that portion from the post. But it’s two weeks from the election and I literally can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a curse really.
The foodtruck event was in NORTHBRIDGE, and not in Bridgeport! I have always had a beef with the Bridgeport Marketplace name since it is located in NORTHBRIDGE!
Is that like the people who live in Stevenson Ranch and say they live in Stevenson’s Ranch? That really irritates me!!!
I wasn’t aware of the legal boundaries between these subdivisions. If I’m not mistaken, the thing was a vacant lot forever before this thing was built. They can all it whatever they want.
That lot is in the Northbridge area. Also, there are limitations on what could have been built on that lot because there is a fault line running right below it. The original plans called for a driving range, batting cage, restaurants (Pete Rose was supposed to put in a baseball-themed restaurant there), and a high-end nursery, but that fell through because of the complaints of the surrounding homes with respect to the stadium lights, and NLF not happy with the bids they received on potential operators.
you mean Saugus right :-p
There’s also some small community gardening happening at Hart Park. I’m not sure how many different organizations/groups are represented, but my kids school has a small plot over there.
Hoping for some good Middle Eastern food next time. Would men in turbans be boycotted in this current Islamaphobic climate?
I think that an effective community garden would be in a location with lots of apartments and/or a more typically impoverished portion of the city.
Isn’t Central Park surrounded by middle class houses with yards? What’s the use in a community garden there? So that someone doesn’t have to mess up their own landscaping with a seasonal garden? And isn’t Central Park kind of a trek for someone without reliable transportation?
Really, what is the use of this Central Park community garden, except as symbolic?
While I like the idea of a community garden, it is usually in a more urban setting. I rather doubt that people will trudge all the way over to Central Park to plant tomatos when they already have a large backyard. A community garden at Hart park seems much more sustainable with the higher density. Just my 2 cents.
Yes. My point, exactly.